Latest News about Thomas Dambo’s Trolls: A Field Study!
Drake Fowler, executive director of The North Carolina Arboretum, and Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville, announce winter arrival of Thomas Dambo’s Trolls: A Field Study!
On Thursday, June 26, in the Heritage Gardens of The North Carolina Arboretum, Drake Fowler, the Arboretum’s executive director and Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville, announced the arrival of what Fowler called “the most significant exhibit we have ever hosted.”
Thomas Dambo’s Trolls: A Field Study will inhabit the gardens and trails of The North Carolina Arboretum Nov. 15 – Feb. 17 on the exhibit’s first North American excursion. Find the full announcement here.
Drake Fowler, executive director of The North Carolina Arboretum said:
Thomas Dambo creates these wonderful trolls from reclaimed materials, from trash to treasure. His aim to connect young and old to nature through these wonderful trolls, which is a message that perfectly aligns with The North Carolina Arboretum and the value our community puts on our natural environment and our precious Blue Ridge mountains.
After Helene we are learning a lot about reuse. In the days after Helene we at the Arboretum were thinking about how to put the 10,000 trees that we lost to good use. We set side the most valuable wood and got those to local artist and them processed others into firewood to heat homes. We are working with the UNCA STEAM labs portable mill project to Mill downed trees right here on site and make that wood available to the public.We have an exciting collaboration with the Echoes of the Forest to work with artisan woodworkers to create art out of our fallen timber.
If you were going to pick a perfect place to show this exhibit for the first time, it is right here in Asheville at The North Carolina Arboretum. This exhibit will give travelers from all 50 states a great reason to come and see the Trolls and experience all our community has to offer. It is our hope that we can provide a boost to our community and our economy. Travelers will continue to make the realization that Western North Carolina is open for business.
And Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville shared:
Thomas Dambo’s work appears in destinations across the globe, drawing fans of both his work and his environmental mission. Explore Asheville powered by the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority are proud to be the presenting sponsor of the North American premiere of the new Thomas Dambo Trolls: A Field Study right here in Asheville at the North Carolina Arboretum. This particular exhibition takes on deeper meaning for our area as we approach the one-year milestone of Hurricane Helene.
In our annual leadership planning session back in March, we prioritized three types of projects for our community: a large entertainment and arts facility, indoor and outdoor sports facilities and family friendly experiences. This partnership certainly fulfills family friendly --- and it brings focus to one of our strategic pillars of encouraging safe and responsible travel and sustainability.
We hope regional residents as well as visitors from near and far are delighted by the whimsy and storytelling aspects of each troll. We look forward to the economic, emotional and environmental benefits for our community over the winter season.